Water is a valuable resource that is becoming increasingly scarce due to droughts and heatwaves. New evaluations of satellite data show a significant decline in water reserves in Europe. Even if water reservoirs in Germany have recovered slightly in 2023, there is still a shortage of billions of tons of water.
According to a recent assessment by the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), Germany continues to lack enormous amounts of water in its total water reservoir. Since measurements began in 2002, Europe has lost a total of around 100 billion tons of water.
The GFZ emphasizes that despite its supposed availability, water has already become a scarce and valuable resource in many regions of the world. Germany has also experienced extreme droughts in the last five years.
A team led by Eva Börgens and Christoph Dahle from the GFZ analyzed data from the "Grace-Follow-On" satellite duo, which uses gravity field measurements to monitor the global water balance. For Germany, the data shows that the water reservoir has stabilized somewhat in 2023, but there is still a shortfall of around ten billion tonnes of water compared to long-term averages. For comparison: Lake Constance holds around 48 billion tons of water.
The terrestrial water reservoir, also known as TWS, is made up of various components: Glacier ice, snow, soil moisture, groundwater and water in rivers, lakes and artificial reservoirs.
According to the GFZ, the situation is particularly critical in Greenland and Antarctica. Greenland loses around 224 billion tons of ice every year, while Antarctica, although colder, still loses around 138 billion tons of ice annually.
Via the "globalwaterstorage.info" portal, the GFZ offers additional information as well as animations and maps that show how water reserves have continuously decreased since 2002. An animated time series impressively illustrates the decline in water storage in Europe.